Wednesday, June 8, 2016

Vivienne Westwood's place in Japanese Fashion

Vivienne Westwood is a fashion name
I have seen regularly on the Japanese fashion blogs I occasionally browse. She
is a staple of high quality, distinctive pieces that flourish within the
Japanese Fashion community to which I personally hold dear and stem personal
stylistic choices off of. As someone who admittedly doesn’t regularly seek out
the historical roots of certain favored brands, a familiar name among the
unfamiliarity of punk rock in the United Kingdom curiously stuck out to me. Vivienne
Westwood ran a store named “Sex” which sold much of the Sex Pistol’s
merchandise, and directly created certain popular works that are actively
associated with the band. Because Punk is an influential force beyond just
music, the aspect of fashion directly tied to the anti-establishment of Punk
created a counter culture means for production of Fashion. Limited
runs, unprecedented stylistic choices, and a somewhat unitary vision of what it
stylistically means to be punk.

The British Library housed some of
Vivienne Westwood’s designs for the movement which largely led to her success
in the industry. In her shop “Sex” the use of sado-masochistic gear, and
shockingly grotesque appearances of free sexual prowess brought an
unconventional take on fashion norms during the 70s as an article from the
Victoria and Albert museum explains. After garnering success they added the
line of “Seditionaries” which affiliated with the Sex Pistols placed “Sex” at
the forefront of the punk “industry”. An article the Met by Shannon Price
awards goes so far as to award her with the title of “Mother of Punk”, but the
British Museum only placed her as a means to Sex Pistol’s clothing line for fashion
in the chronology of Punk.

Juxtaposed, Japanese
culture is just about the opposite of Punk. It is very rooted in its values and
cultures. Those who defect do so drastically. As someone who has visited
Japan’s areas where Fashion reigns over culture, I find that Harajuku culture
is often played up to be something directly comparable to Punk. “Punk”
defection is simply not large in the modern age when compared to more trendy,
fashionable, culturally rooted themes of modesty and “mottainai” (the desire
for lack of waste physically and socially) within Japanese society. The Tokyo
Fashion blog displays girls in Vivienne Westwood bags in traditional Japanese
dress, or Vivienne Westwood clothing juxtaposed with Tabi socks and sandals.
The cultural clash of distinctly Japanese fashion that has traditional values
combined with the anti-establishment punk brand of Vivienne Westwood concocts
itself as a quiet, subtle, revolt with the marriage of opposing ideals.
Contrarily, there are also connoisseurs of the Westwood Brand that value the
punk roots that the exhibit was rooted in. Many Fashion icons in the modern age
also continue to display sado-masochistic gear, the black leather, chained
movement that Vivienne Westwood pioneered. This is more in line with the
stereotypical vision of Harajuku Fashion that global culture coins as “Japanese
Fashion”.

Although I had never sought it out personally, seeing a
recognizable name in the punk exhibit in the most contrary of places was a
stark connection to make in my head at the time. After researching about Vivienne
Westwood’s progression and modernized shift she seems a curious but apt fit
within Japanese Fashion. Vivienne Westwood’s notability as an English fashion designer
and roots in punk reaches the spectrum of Japanese Fashion icons from Modern
day quiet rebellion of rooted Japanese Culture, to the black dreadlocked
pseudo-punk romanticized version of delinquent Japan we see today. There is
something personal within her fashion portfolio despite the large diversity by
which her clientele identify on the spectrum of cultural identity and fashion expression.